A lot of people are asking me to speak more often in public, even in other parts of the world. Others want me to publish a book. Then some are requesting audio-files, so they can listen to them on their iPod, at the office or while driving to it or while traveling. I’ve been thinking lately on how to fulfill everybody’s needs…

So, I have decided to create a bunch of products in the coming 12 months. Currently, I am in the process of creating a downloadable Audio CD, which will be sold on the internet. Last weekend, I recorded the last 5 tracks of it. This means that very shortly my Audio CD will be launched! Isn’t that great?

If you are interested already, mail me and enjoy a pre-launch discount of 3 €! The Audio CD will be sold for 19,95 €, including taxes. This means you only pay 16,95 € if you order now.

Oh, and the subject of this Audio CD? Right, I almost forgot to tell you this 🙂

“How to shorten your working day by 2 hours?”

I’ll share 17 genius shortcuts or lifehacks to help you do more in less time!

Some people tell me they don’t have time for (creating) a system. They need to change right now, but have no time for change. So, they keep running things like before. And guess what? Yes, they actually get similar results! On top of that, they keep on complaining, because nothing ever changes and they keep on going nowhere.

Another thing they believe is that if they spend time setting up and maintaining a todo-list and doing regular (weekly?) reviews, they’ll never get anything done.

Of course, most systems take some time to get set up, but once you start using your system, the time you use in “maintenance” is more than compensating for the time you save not having to think about what to do (next)– or making up for the things you didn’t remember to do. So, you see, having a system creates extra time!

I know, improving your system will save you more time, so you have to invest in making things better…every time! This will cost you more time in the beginning, but it will save you more and more. Now, if someone shows you a shortcut on how to get things done in a smarter, more efficient way, you are actually improving a lot.

Then the choice is yours what you would do with the extra time you have saved. You could invest it in saving more time in other areas of your life, or you could have more fun with friends and family or you could spend it with doing nothing and not using the shortcut at all. This way you can continue to complain and demotivate others But that’s not who we are, right? 🙂

As a lifehacker I learned a couple of extra shortcuts to make my life easier and more efficient.

Here is a (first) cheatsheet of interesting shortcuts:

Sample queries Google responses pages with…
bert lifehack both words: bert and lifehack
Hawaii OR Bali 1 word: Hawaii or Bali
+I love both words: I & love (force Google not to ignore I)
lifehack -computer the word lifehackbut NOT the word computer
“Enjoy every day” the exact phrase: Enjoy every day
iPod €100..€500 iPods between €100 and €500
part-time the words part-time, part time, or parttime
life ~coach the words Life & both coach & its synonyms
Indian food site:about.com Indian food from the website about.com
whales filetype:ppt finds whales in Powerpoint files

Do you also receive these unbelievable, extraordinary Powerpoints or slideshows from friends and colleagues? Some of them contain really beautiful pictures and great sounds. They are very inspiring and sometimes I would like to reuse some of their content. Then the challenge starts! Rather than creating everything again from scratch, I try to reuse bits and pieces. But how do I get embedded audio out of a Powerpoint? How do I get pictures extracted from a PPS-file?

I found out that there is no standard way to extract images or sounds from Powerpoint-files or slidewhows, but you can still save them (and reuse!) if you follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Open the PPT or PPS-file in Powerpoint.2. Save the file as a Web Page (“Save As” => Web Page)3. Open the folder where you saved this web page and there you’ll see the audio file in the list, next to the images you wished for.

That’s it! 🙂

By the way, I am not a fan of stealing from others, but linking to your source in a respectful way, will often get you (official) permission to (re)use their material. I learned this lifehack from Amit Agarwal. Thanks Amit!

I was born unknowing,
and have had only a little time
to change that here and there.
– Richard Meynman –

I was also born unknowing and the older I get, the more I realise that there is always more to explore, to create and to learn. The amount of knowledge seems to grow exponentially. Time goes faster and faster too!

So, it’s time to sit down again, reflect on what I am doing, where I am going and what I want to achieve in life. I am creating an ecourse on life coaching and as a test, I am going through it myself now. And I am excited about the results already 🙂

What I have already learned, is that my ability to learn is improving every year. Next to that, I am aware that I am only skilled in a very few fields, compared to the universe of knowledge. That is not stopping me of sharing and helping others with the little knowledge that I have. 🙂

I have been privileged to work at the forefront of emerging environments, such as the commercial internet almost 15 years ago and biometrics, which is still a quite unknown field for a lot of people. Recently, I have moved on to life coaching and lifehacking. These fields of expertise are now building at an incredible speed and it reinforces my contribution to those unaccustomed to the benefits of the digital age. I will create more and more practical guides and tools to help everyone to master the magic of technology. I tell you this, because these are areas where I have changed from not knowing to knowing.